Analysis of the Argus the Unmaker Defeat Cinematic (Spoilers)

The final Antorus cinematic was a fitting end to the Argus storyline, but it also raised a lot of questions for the future! In this post, we'll analyze and speculate on all the details in the cinematic.

Spoilers in the post.

Illidan and Velen

At the start of the cinematic, we learn that Illidan is staying behind with the Pantheon and Sargeras.

In the goodbye dialogue between Velen and Illidan, we see how the viewpoints between the two leaders has evolved in Patch 7.3. At the start of 7.3, Velen is always at odds with Illidan. Velen believes in prophecies, while Illidan does not believe in fate. This reaches a dramatic confrontation in the The Fate of Xe'ra cinematic where Illidan rejects the prophecy that he is the child of light and shadow.

Here in the ending cinematic, there's a nice role-reversal between Illidan and Velen on fate:

Velen: Illidan, we've done all we've can. Illidan: Every choice. Every sacrifice has led me to this moment. To face him once again.Velen: You...are not coming with us?Illidan: The hunter is nothing without the hunt. Did you not see this fate, Prophet?Velen: Fate? Our survival was never in fate's hands. Light be with you, Illidan Stormrage.

Illidan frequently grins at Velen in Argus cinematics, usually sarcastically, but here the leaders share one moment of understanding and respect before they part ways.

Illidan's Motivations

When explaining why he wants to stay behind with the Sargeras and Pantheon, Illidan explains:

"The hunter is nothing without the hunt."

This is an interesting twist on his line to Maiev upon being defeated in Black Temple:

But the huntress... is nothing without the hunt. You... are nothing... without me.

Earlier in Black Temple, he taunts Maiev that now she is nothing...but he realizes he too is in a similar situation at the end of Antorus, if he returns to Azeroth.

While Illidan does make a sacrifice, he's also been looking forward to this in a way. Back in Nella casa di mio padre we learned that Sargeras burned Illidan's eyes out, as a "gift" for Illidan seeking the Dragon Soul. Illidan sought to feign allegiance to Sargeras to acquire this mighty artifact, which would allow the Night Elves to seal the demonic portals in War of the Ancients, but instead it deepened the rift between Illidan and his people.

In the Nella casa di mio padre cinematic, Illidan is granted a vision of the Legion's true power and he vows to find a way to defeat them, but realizes it cannot be done just on Azeroth:

Illidan: Even if we defeat them here, it will mean nothing.Illidan: We are doomed...unless we find another way to fight them.

You can see the full Illidan questline and cinematics in our video:

At the end of the cinematic, we see Illidan walk towards the imprisoned Sargeras, glaives ready for combat. He'll enjoy tormenting Sargeras for eternity.

Velen, reporting back to others on the Vindicaar, offers a more noble take on the situation:

Prophet Velen: Illidan serves as the Dark Titan's jailer. His sacrifice has ended the Legion. At long last, the Burning Crusade...is over.

What Happens to Maiev?

We saw Illidan and Maiev working together closely at the start of Patch 7.2 Tomb of Sargeras, but then her arc abruptly ended. We last see her talking to Velen on the Broken Shore, as Gendou pointed out:

We haven't seen her on Argus, although all the other major characters traveled there. She isn't mentioned either in the Moments of Reflection messages, which Illidan leaves for Tyrande, Malfurion, and the player.

Imprisoning Sargeras

Once Velen leaves on the Vindicaar, the Pantheon imprison Sargeras, pulling him away from Azeroth as he screams in agony. His one final action is to plunge his sword, Gorribal, deep into Azeroth. He also then tries to swipe at the Vindicaar as he's finally imprisoned, but the spaceship dodges his attack.

Sargeras is massive compared to all other characters, even dwarfing Azeroth. The wound in Azeroth is quite deep, and the part visible in Silithus is basically only the hilt--we are in serious trouble. Sargeras is imprisoned, but the essences of the Pantheon are holding him in check, so they will not be able to help us in Battle for Azeroth.

Magni is the conduit for Azeroth's message here, as well as in the upcoming expansion Battle for Azeroth where he gives every player the Heart of Azeroth and instructs them to find Azerite, the Blood of Azeroth.

However, perhaps we shouldn't trust Magni as his actions at the start of Legion unwittingly led us to our current situation and fulfilled some of Il'gynoth's whispers:

"The King of Diamonds is made a pawn."“Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path.”“The Lord of Ravens will turn the key.”

More to Sargeras' Story?

Back in the Patch 7.3.2 PTR, we datamined a number of spells implying that Sargeras will be controlling Argus on Mythic Difficulty. This would make Sargeras' reveal in the cinematic even more satisfying.

Datamining points to numerous "Sargeras" abilities, implying that Sargeras will be controlling the tortured Titan throughout the encounter on Mythic difficulty.

NEW

NEW

NEW Grasps players with overwhelming power, stunning them.

Catene di Sargeras Inflicts 500000 Shadow damage every 2 sec. as long as the player is attached to the Chains of Sargeras. This effect stacks.

Rabbia di Sargeras Inflicts a player with Sargeras' Rage, causing them to release Unleashed Rage if any other players come nearby.

Rabbia Scatenata Inflicts 200000 Shadow damage every 0.5 sec. for 30 sec to both the player with Sargeras' Rage and to any players who come nearby.This effect stacks.

Sentenza di Sargeras Lashes a player to a stake with a deadly chain, inflicting 500000 Shadow damage every 0.5 sec. for 30 sec.Players can break the chain by moving 35 yards away from the stake. When the chain breaks, the player will trigger Shattered Bonds.

The Phase 3 and 4 descriptions also differ on Heroic vs Mythic difficulty, implying something truly special will happen on Mythic difficulty.

Phase 3 on Normal, Heroic, LFR reads: When Argus reaches 40% health, he is sufficiently weakened such that Aman'Thul is able to subdue him with a . However, the players must then contend with Argus' Constellar Designates.

Phase 3 on Mythic reads: When Argus reaches 40% health, he is sufficiently weakened such that Aman'Thul is able to subdue him with a . Or, so it seems...

Phase 4 on Normal, Heroic, LFR reads: His Constellar Designates buying him the time to regain his strength, Argus kills the players with . All hope would be lost, were it not for the titans...

There is no Phase 4 for Mythic.

There is also a special red version of Argus and his weapon:

Silithus and Old Gods

Sargeras' sword can be seen across Azeroth but the wound is specifically in Silithus. This could be bad news for us as the Old God C'Thun rests nearby in Ahn'Qiraj.

In World of Warcraft Chronicle we learn the titans imprisoned C’Thun underneath Silithus, reinforcing his prison by building the Ahn'qiraj. This was a 40-player raid in classic WoW that dropped Tier 2.5 and notable upgrades for players progressing through Naxxramas. It opened alongside the 10-player raid Rovine di Ahn'qiraj (formally 20-man prior to Cataclysm) which offered more-casual players a chance at Circolo Cenariano reputations and books that granted more-powerful spell ranks.

On a mission to revitalize the desert of Silithus and transform it into a lush forest, the night elves discovered Ahn’Qiraj and entered the temple. This awakened C’Thun and the qiraji, starting the War of the Shifting Sands. The only way to subdue the qiraji was to seal them behind a magical wall, which could only be opened with the Scepter of the Shifting Sands.

The events of the War of the Shifting sands are heavily referenced in the questline to Ring the Scarab Gong, a massive server-wide event in classic WoW. Players across realms had to do numerous turn-ins of trade goods while raiders worked towards retrieving the scattered pieces of the Scepter around the world. These quests involved a variety of tasks such as farming green dragons for , raid all classic content and defeat Dr. Weevil for , and complete a speed run of Blackwing Lair in . You can read more about the questline on the Scettro delle Sabbie Mutevoli page. It is no longer possible to do, but players could complete it until Cataclysm to get the Veterano delle Sabbie Mutevoli achievement.

Zidormi, when spoken to about phasing between old and new versions of Silithus, also alludes to the Black Empire:

Silithus has ever been a magnet for ancient, malevolent powers.

I could open a timeway to reveal how the Black Empire once sprawled across these sands. Or show you wars waged between mighty armies.

The Old Gods originated from the Void Lords' desire to create eternal torment. Their strategy was to create Old Gods, fling them into the Great Dark, and hope they would make contact with worlds and contaminate vulnerable titans in their pre-awakened state.

The Old Gods that found Azeroth quickly plunged it into a world of despair, forming the expansive Black Empire. They created two races--the "faceless ones" (n'raqi") and the aqir (later split into the Mantid, Qiraji, and Nerubian races).

The Pantheon eventually defeated the Old Gods, destroying Y'Shaarj first. The resulting chaos and destruction led the Pantheon to realize that destroying the other three Old Gods would destroy Azeroth itself. Instead, they decided to imprison C'Thun, N'Zoth, and Yogg-Saron deep underground.

The destruction caused by eliminating Y'Shaarj and his stronghold was still corrupting Azeroth, so the keepers poured their energy into controlling this rift, turning it into the life-giving Well of Eternity.

There's a lot of supporting evidence that the Old Gods will play a major role in Battle for Azeroth. For example, we learned that Queen Azshara will be a raid boss, and she is heavily linked to N'Zoth. More details in The Old Gods References in Battle for Azeroth.

The Void

After players defeat Argus and view the cinematic, the skybox changes inside the raid-instanced Vindicaar. In the sky of Azeroth, we see a red dot where the planet Argus used to be. On the Antorus Vindicaar after defeating Argus, we have a more disturbing sight--all of the planets are engulfed by the Void. Back in the Patch 7.3.2 PTR, we speculated something like this would happen as we found new void-themed art assets in the PTR.

Quite interesting, as Sargeras' original motives were to destroy planets so they couldn't be corrupted by the Void.

Here's a quote from when we first speculated on the new Void Assets:

During the Star Augur encounter back in the Nighthold, he showed us several different visions of the sky referencing the different threats affecting planets, such as Azeroth.

Phase 1 "Absolute Zero" has a Frost theme, like Wrath of the Lich King

Phase 2 "A Shattered Void" has a Fel theme, like the Burning Legion and Argus

Star Augur Etraeus yells: Is that not enough? Must I show you the true horror of our reality?Star Augur Etraeus yells: Very well... witness what I have seen, and TREMBLE!Star Augur Etraeus yells: These are the beings who will devour the future you so futilely fight to protect!Star Augur Etraeus yells: Avatars of non-existence... knowing nothing but hunger.

In Patch 7.3.2, similar yet new files have been added. Perhaps these new assets will be used in the sky of Silithus or another part of the story.

Commenti

Commento di Stabhorn

Here's my question: where the Fel did Sargeras get that physical body?

Commento di Darksora110

on 2017-11-29T15:47:40-06:00

This is good stuff. Too bad this Battle for Azeroth doesn't have anything to do with what just transpire in my opinion.

Commento di Darksora110

on 2017-11-29T15:48:38-06:00

Here's my question: where the Fel did Sargeras get that physical body?

Good question.

Commento di Lostelf

on 2017-11-29T16:14:29-06:00

Argus is a red dot? Did it get destroyed or something in the raid?

Commento di offspinner

on 2017-11-29T16:30:22-06:00

Argus is a red dot? Did it get destroyed or something in the raid?

The red dot is the remains of the portal/wormhole/macguffin connecting Argus to Azeroth. Presumably, right?

Argus is still out there in deep space, just no longer visible from Azeroth.

Commento di etheldald

on 2017-11-29T16:39:11-06:00

i want to know what the hell happened to maiev, really sad to seing her gone and not saying a word about illidan.

Commento di Pupsader

on 2017-11-29T16:48:43-06:00

Excellent analysis.

Commento di TheRealChaoswolf

on 2017-11-29T17:06:23-06:00

Here's my question: where the Fel did Sargeras get that physical body?

Good question.

My understanding is that all the titans have access to physical bodies. Sargeras only used the Avatar of Sargeras to easily get to Azeroth, as it was difficult/ needed the entire power of the Well of Eternity to get Sargeras to Azeroth in the War of the Ancients.

Commento di Asraisirena

on 2017-11-29T17:30:45-06:00

Well if you'll note, the titans gave him one, by pulling him out of the clouds. He became corporial. I wish we'd get closure and watch Illidan defeat Sargeras. I'm gonna miss Illidan.

Commento di AlakeiThancan

on 2017-11-29T17:36:09-06:00

My understanding is that all the titans have access to physical bodies. Sargeras only used the Avatar of Sargeras to easily get to Azeroth, as it was difficult/ needed the entire power of the Well of Eternity to get Sargeras to Azeroth in the War of the Ancients.

Mine is that he did not want to destroy Azeroth, he seeked to use its power. That's why he tried to invade us, instead of you now, using his big ass sword from the start.

Commento di Evolyn1877

on 2017-11-29T18:23:11-06:00

The Horde v. Alliance conflict seems so insignificant when looking at worlds corrupted by Void Lords, Old Gods being thrown through space, and entire planets destroyed.

On a side note, this got me even more excited about the Infinity Wars trailer. Or maybe the Infinity Wars trailer got me excited about this. idk. I'm just excited.

Commento di CaptainDope

on 2017-11-29T18:26:43-06:00

Here's something to think about: will Sargeras remain imprisoned forever? Will he break out, or will someone set him free? No prison lasts forever. He may have been written out of the story only to return again in the future. Maybe things will get so desperate that we will need his help against the Void.

Commento di Stabhorn

on 2017-11-29T18:47:24-06:00

Here's my question: where the Fel did Sargeras get that physical body?

Good question.

My understanding is that all the titans have access to physical bodies. Sargeras only used the Avatar of Sargeras to easily get to Azeroth, as it was difficult/ needed the entire power of the Well of Eternity to get Sargeras to Azeroth in the War of the Ancients.

Dont forget that Sargeras' body died during the War of the Ancients. It was destroyed, and his spirit was cast back into the Nether. That's why he had to use an avatar in the first place; otherwise he'd still be chopping planets in half with his sword.

Well if you'll note, the titans gave him one, by pulling him out of the clouds. He became corporial. I wish we'd get closure and watch Illidan defeat Sargeras. I'm gonna miss Illidan.

How does that make sense? Isn't it waaaay easier to imprison a spirit than a whole entire Titan?

Commento di RyuFlameheart

on 2017-11-29T18:59:51-06:00

However, perhaps we shouldn't trust Magni as his actions at the start of Legion unwittingly led us to our current situation and fulfilled some of Il'gynoth's whispers:

Perhaps it wouldn't be much of a good idea to trust an eyeball parasite minion of the Old Gods, no matter how accurate his whispers are.The Old Gods are not as predictable as the whispers would have us believe. It's a setup. I think Il'gynoth (and by extension N'zoth) is setting us up to turn against Magni.

You should instead be asking why the old gods would tell us that.

Another possible theory is that he was simply relaying our thoughts to us to let us know that THEY know what's going on. We already new Magni became a servant of Azeroth (made a pawn). We know that the pillars indirectly lit our path to Argus (five torches to light our path), we know that Khadgar drew the plan to use the pillars to seal the tomb. While the other whispers cannot be truly accounted for (yet) it's not an unreal idea that they would read our minds and show us they know what we're up to.

Commento di AlakeiThancan

on 2017-11-29T19:06:14-06:00

Dont forget that Sargeras' body died during the War of the Ancients. It was destroyed, and his spirit was cast back into the Nether.

Uhh ... No. You're confusing different facts here. Sargeras wasn't "killed" during the War of the Ancients. Broxigar the red, brother of Saurfang, merely jumped through the portal and stroke him with his axe, inflicting a puny flesh wound. Yet he is, to this day, the only mortal to ever wound Sargeras.

You're getting confused with how Aegwynn, a few milleniums ago, fought off Sargeras and defeated his physical incarnation, which she imprisonned in the Tomb of Sargeras (hence the name), while his spirit found refuge in her womb, waiting for the right time to strike (aka corrupt Medivh's mind).

The body in question is the one we fight in the Tomb of Sargeras.

Sargeras, until now, had never been defeated. By anyone. (Edit : Yeah, he was defeated by Aegwynn, but in Chronicles I think I remember it was heavily implied he lost on purpose. And even if he didn't ... He did find a way to corrupt Medivh so on the long run I count that as a win for Sargeras)

Commento di nmb3000

on 2017-11-29T19:58:43-06:00

Honestly, there isn't much to analyze.

Legion's ending just shows that Blizzard still doesn't take storytelling seriously and can't be bothered to hire real writers with talent to create a cohesive and meaningful story. They rely on beautiful cinematics and epic music to create emotion and hope that people are blinded by that so they don't see how absurd and shallow the narrative really is. The whole of Legion was a handful of barely connected and nearly incoherent paragraphs, half of which were aborted partway through, without a meaningful arc or climax, and which threw their existing backstory and lore out the window (even "new" canon like the stuff in Chronicles).

The only thing missing to make Legion worse than Warlords is Velen yelling AZEROTH IS FREE! while suddenly being BFFs with Aggramar.

Commento di Soeroah

on 2017-11-29T20:10:33-06:00

Honestly, there isn't much to analyze.

Legion's ending just shows that Blizzard still doesn't take storytelling seriously and can't be bothered to hire real writers with talent to create a cohesive and meaningful story. They rely on beautiful cinematics and epic music to create emotion and hope that people are blinded by that so they don't see how absurd and shallow the narrative really is. The whole of Legion was a handful of barely connected and nearly incoherent paragraphs, half of which were aborted partway through, without a meaningful arc or climax, and which threw their existing backstory and lore out the window (even "new" canon like the stuff in Chronicles).

The only thing missing to make Legion worse than Warlords is Velen yelling AZEROTH IS FREE! while suddenly being BFFs with Aggramar.

Many of those "barely connected" paragraphs "half of which were aborted partway through" are most likely set up for the future.

Blizzard has already stated that they're looking to avoid the old fashioned style of "Suddenly, Arthas" expansions, where everything is self contain, and they want to seed stories well in advance. I see people complain that Sylvanas and Genn didn't get a full arc in this expansion - but that makes sense, because it's continuing in the next expansion. I see people wonder why we had Bolvar so active only for nothing to happen - it's obvious they're setting up a future story there. And the same could very well be said for many of the Order Hall followers - Arator, after all, came to Argus with us, as did Lothraxion. Calia is a follower, and the Alliance is soon going to take the Undercity. Magatha and the Doomstone wouldn't be brought back after six years just to be left alone - they want to remind players about her for some reason.

We even had a Nightborne follow us to Argus, which was completely unexpected, but showed that they were more than just a one-and-done race - and in BfA they are becoming a playable race.

People need to stop assuming stories have to be introduced and resolved in a single expansion. That's how we get rushed stories that feel unsatisfying and lurchy. We can justifiably complain about things like the Abyssal Maw, where the eventual picking up of the thread is wholly unsatisfying and retcon-y, but until then the stories could well just be getting spread across expansions, which is what Blizzard wants to do in the future. And the Chronicle thing is entirely stupid, and I want them to explain that.

In any event, Legion crushes WoD's storytelling easily. Literally the middle chapter of that expansion is missing, both for Yrel and in terms of the Legion reveal now the legendary quest chain has been removed, and the Garrison Campaign had maybe two week's worth of actual story progression among another eight weeks of disconnected busywork.

Commento di Ridikulous

on 2017-11-29T20:12:10-06:00

I love the part where people think this is the end, knowing 7.3.5 is coming up soon with a bunch of changes to leveling and new stories.

Where do they think Azerite comes from?

Obviously the planet had to be severely wounded. Then once we remove the sword and try to stop the bleeding, we can't trust the nasty Alliance with such nuclear level power. We need to grab it all. Then, you know, use it on them for being dbags. >:)

Commento di Stabhorn

on 2017-11-29T21:18:17-06:00

Dont forget that Sargeras' body died during the War of the Ancients. It was destroyed, and his spirit was cast back into the Nether.

Uhh ... No. You're confusing different facts here. Sargeras wasn't "killed" during the War of the Ancients. Broxigar the red, brother of Saurfang, merely jumped through the portal and stroke him with his axe, inflicting a puny flesh wound. Yet he is, to this day, the only mortal to ever wound Sargeras.

You're getting confused with how Aegwynn, a few milleniums ago, fought off Sargeras and defeated his physical incarnation, which she imprisonned in the Tomb of Sargeras (hence the name), while his spirit found refuge in her womb, waiting for the right time to strike (aka corrupt Medivh's mind).

The body in question is the one we fight in the Tomb of Sargeras.

Sargeras, until now, had never been defeated. By anyone. (Edit : Yeah, he was defeated by Aegwynn, but in Chronicles I think I remember it was heavily implied he lost on purpose. And even if he didn't ... He did find a way to corrupt Medivh so on the long run I count that as a win for Sargeras)

No, I am not. The Avatar is a completely different body. After Brox wounded Sargeras, the Titan then started to climb through the Well of Eternity. You could even see Brox impaled on the tip of Gorribal. Sargeras was halfway through the portal when Krasus dumped a mountain of energy into the Dragon Soul. The portal then imploded.

The book describes it as 'Sargeras simply...ceased to be.' This led a lot of people to believe he was dead, so the devs clarified that only his body was destroyed, and that his spirit was loose in the Nether. Hence why he had to build himself an avatar. Sargeras' titanic body was destroyed in the Sundering right after being wounded by Brox. This is 100% canon.

Commento di kodora1316

on 2017-11-29T23:46:13-06:00

I enjoy reading posts about the lore and even the discussions between others in the comments. I’ve never read any of the books, but now I really think I should.